Emergency Communications

National Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG-9-1-1) Initiative

The Nation's current 9-1-1 system is designed around telephone technology and cannot handle the text, data, images and video that are increasingly common in personal communications and critical to future transportation safety and mobility advances. The Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) initiative will establish the foundation for public emergency communications services in a wireless mobile society.

The NG9-1-1 Transition Plan and the NG9-1-1 Final System Design have been released and can be accessed below:

• Next Generation 9-1-1 System Initiative - Final System Design (HTML, PDF)
• Next Generation 9-1-1 System Initiative - Transition Plan (HTML, PDF)

Highlights

Why Can't We Talk? Working Together To Bridge the Communications Gap To Save Lives—A Guide for Public Officials
This guide was developed as a result of the ongoing dialogue among State and local elected and appointed officials, city and county managers, police chiefs, fire chiefs, sheriffs, transportation officials, and other public safety officials. It examines the critical barriers to interoperability (the ability of different systems to exchange both voice and data communications), provides guidelines for assessing a jurisdiction's interoperability, and suggests interim technology strategies to close gaps.

Resources

Public Safety Communications and Interoperability (NIJ Fact Sheet)
Public safety agencies cannot communicate seamlessly for three primary reasons: incompatible frequencies, incompatible equipment, and lack of common language. This National Institute of Justice InShort Fact Sheet details these three barriers to interoperability and outlines steps that can be taken to alleviate the problem and is available for download here.

National Institute of Justice's CommTech Program
Interoperability is one of the research missions of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the CommTech program. Through CommTech, NIJ will provide solutions to both short- and long-term interoperability problems involving wireless public safety telecommunications and information technology applications. CommTech is helping bridge the gap in emergency communication by identifying, adopting, and developing interoperability solutions that include open architecture standards for voice, data, image, and video communication systems.

Communication Surveys

These Technology Clearinghouse surveys have been completed by law enforcement agencies around the country. Each survey will provide you with background information on that particular agency's communications related project, including funding resources, hardware and software vendors utilized for that project as well as contact information for the individual who worked on the project. Some of the surveys may appear in other categories because they deal with various technologies and are not just limited to communications.

"Communicate Now! Real-Time Exchange Between Public Safety and Transportation" Emergencies demand effective communication of information between public safety and transportation agencies responding to any situation, but the absence of a uniform approach for data sharing remains a barrier. To fill this void, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Joint Program Office (JPO) is establishing a standards-based approach to critical information exchange through the Intelligent Transportation Systems and Public Safety Information Exchange Project. An informational brochure is available for download. Additional information on Intelligent Transportation Systems can be found here…

 

National Strategy for Information Sharing Release
The White House released the National Strategy for Information Sharing. The Strategy sets forth a plan to build upon the progress made in improving information sharing since the September 11^th, 2001 attacks and establishes an integrated national information sharing capability. It was developed using a collaborative process and based on significant input provided by members of the Federal Information Sharing Council, as well as state, local, tribal, and private sector officials from across the nation.

Information Sharing Surveys

These Technology Clearinghouse surveys have been completed by law enforcement agencies around the country. Each survey will provide you with background information on that particular agency's information sharing related project, including funding resources, hardware and software vendors utilized for that project as well as contact information for the individual who worked on the project. Some of the surveys may appear in other categories because they deal with various technologies and are not just limited to information sharing.